Because everyone likes pictures.

After-Before Friday Week 38

Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos

Before we get to this week’s galleries, just a reminder that there’s still time to participate in March’s One Photo Focus on March 6, where all participants submit their post-processed version of this image submitted by Loré Dombaj of Snow’s Fissures and Fractures:

Now, on to this week’s ABFriday galleries, with many thanks to all those participating!

My submission: I shot this photo in Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C. on my return trip from Colorado a few days ago. This is the AeroTrain stop in the main terminal. I used my iPhone 6 and edited the image with Lightroom 5 using adjustment brush and radial filter presets, spot removal tool, selective sharpening, and triangle crop overlay.

Nic says: I’m in LA this week and I had the opportunity to go to Manhattan Beach. Along Manhattan Beach is a walkway where you can bring your dog. My dog and I were taking a rest and looking out at the ocean when I started noticing airplanes from LAX in the clouds. I took several photos but I liked the composition of this one with the lamp, unfortunately there isn’t a plane in this photo. So I took a plane from one of the other photos and added it to this one. Now this photo has a plane and a bird. 🙂

Robin says: When I learned on the morning of February 20th that our area had set a new record for its coldest day ever, I thought this would be a good time to go out and take some pictures. So I headed down the road to Great Falls National Park. The “Before” image is the original RAW file with no adjustments. The “After” image was adjusted in Adobe Camera Raw and then a few additional steps were taken in Photoshop. The details can be seen at my post here.

Loré says: I desperately need color, light, softness, something to get me through these cold, rainy days. So, I pulled out this image from last summer and gave it a breath of life. Just to get me through, until spring comes along.

Michelle says: This photo is from Labor Day 2014. I was at a “Balloon Glow” at Callaway Gardens. It is a huge event for photographers. There are so many there for this event it was like a swarm of cameras. I had not really done much night photography so I didn’t even bring my tripod. (I will this year though.) However, I was able to take this basic photo of the balloons across the lake. Unfortunately though, one of the balloons in the center never lit up. So, clearly, this was a problem for me to fix!

Emilio says: This image is part of a series I am doing on the hotels/casinos of Las Vegas. A very simple transformation this week. You can not use a tripod within any of the casinos so this was hand held at a very high ISO. The subsequent digital noise had to be reduced in Lightroom and the clarity suffered. But I still think it came out pretty darn good.

Amy says: The yellow photo is original. I did some work on the LR basic panel. Then, I export it to the Google photo and used the center focus to dark the background and lighten the flower. The center focus on Google allows you to resize the focus and move to the point that you want to focus. I think it works really well for this photo editing.

I love this video. I especially enjoyed watching the effects the brush brought to your image. Everything you did was subtle yet quite an improvement. I have never used the overlay, though. I do usually follow the rule of thirds but probably break it more often than not. I have an iPhone, too, but forget how powerful the camera is! Got to use it more often!

Thanks, Emilio! You’ve always been a great supporter of my videos and I really appreciate that 🙂 I really do like the overlays – I also find the golden spiral useful at times, though I’ve never actually shot a photo that adhered to its ratios (it’s a bit difficult) – it will come into play when I crop. You should play around with them and see if you like any of them. I bet you’re “breaking” the rules of thirds ends up fitting into one of the other overlays 🙂 As for the iPhone, I followed a blogger for months, in awe of her photos, before I realized they were all taken with her iPhone (and a 5 at the time)! Sometimes it’s just nice and fun to whip out the phone and capture something instead of having to dig out the big gear! So I say go for it – let’s see some Vegas shots through your iPhone 😀

Hi Stacy, another great collection of images, I did get a post done, but not intime to submit an image to the forum!!! my routine is slowly getting back to something I can manage, I think…..
your image and video shows us how much more is available to us with the phone, and lightroom mobile – so much to learn, thanks for inspiring us!

Thanks for your kind comment, Janice! As I said to Lynne, below, if you’re ever up against the deadline, don’t hesitate to send anyway. I try to be as flexible as I am able. In fact, I had a number of submissions come in Thursday afternoon, and I had the time to put them in 🙂 You’re back home now, right? It has got to be difficult transitioning back to RL after extended travels.

I tend to forget about using my iPhone camera and am always amazed as the quality of the images. It’s really great to have something always at the ready when my gear is at home or not easily accessible. I actually took a few more images today in the airport (as I’m now enroute to L.A.) and can’t wait to “open” them and see what they look like on the big screen!)

Great set of ABFriday posts, Stacy. Took me a while to get through them all, but it was worth it. Some really interesting work and some interesting exchanges on the comments. And I have finally figured out what I’d like to do with the One Photo Focus image next week.

A lot of great images this week! I think it is really neat how your photo somehow feels like the perspective has shifted with what appears to be a more panoramic crop (I’ll watch the video in a minute to see what you did). I like the more pinky and blue of the station, and how the red shirts on the escalator really pop now. Great job. 🙂

Thanks, Nic! And thanks for picking up on the red shirts – I liked that especially too 🙂 I agree about the change in perspective with the panorama crop; I don’t use it too often, but it really works wonderfully when it’s the kind of shot you want but you don’t have a wide-angle lens!

Stacey, I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t realize it was your first ABF entry! I guess I was used to you being part of One Photo Focus, that it didn’t dawn on me 🙂 Thanks so much for “branching out”! And you’re very welcome. I changed the order of your photos (apologies for that – though I think you mislabeled them. I should have realized!)

Sorry you came up against the deadline, Lynne, but if you’re ever in doubt about whether it’s too late, just late me know! Always happy to try to accommodate everyone if I’m able. I’ll be sure to check out your post 🙂